Today was the one day of the year when we do make parkrun a bit competitive and see who wins the male and female Festive parkrun trophies, as well as the age graded prize.

Unfortunately the weather put paid to Plan A, which was of course Dunfermline parkrun at Pittencrieff Park. Fortunately the gravel paths of Loch Leven are more resilient to the weather so our Plan B was able to go ahead and a lucky 13 PH Racing Club members managed to make the start line at relatively short notice. It was unlucky though for depending men’s champion Andrew Wright who was already en route to Dunfermline and didn’t see the cancellation notice in time. Defending ladies champ Kristin Lownie and age grade winner John Crookston were also unable to attend.

This meant we have two new names to add to the trophies. Mark Ryan capped off an excellent year by coming first PH male and second place overall behind turncoat former PH member Jamie Lessels (only joking Jamie). Mark’s time of 17:36 put him 50 seconds clear of Bryan Innes. Not far behind Bryan was Paul Kieran who finished fourth overall in 17:30. There was a new course PB for Aaron Bennet who finished in 18:41 and next home after him was Alan McGowan, sixth overall in 19:15. Michael Lindsay and Mark McLean made it seven PH in the top 10 finishing in 19:49 and 20:05 respectively.

Meanwhile Julie Menzies was enjoying a good race with Rhona van Rensburg of Fife AC. Julie came out on top in a time of 20:21 to ensure her name will go on the ladies Festive parkrun trophy in addition to the Club Championship shield!

Scott Love, Mark Webster, Wright Beveridge, Allen Marr and Ian Johnston were the other PH finishers with varying degrees of clothing on show.

In the age graded competition the overall best age grade of the day was Julie Menzies effort of 82.39% with Mark Ryan also scoring highly with 79.92. With the prize restricted to those who didn’t win the male of female prize though the award goes to Paul Kieran who scored a very good 77.84%, ahead of Mark McLean’s 75.85%.

Well done to all and huge thanks to the volunteer team at Loch Leven parkrun for putting on the event on a very cold day. Thanks also to all the other local run directors who clearly had difficult decisions to make in cancelling runs. Photos by Ross Bennet.